Reclaimed
-
-
4.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Wickedly smart, devious as hell, and lightning fast.” -Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author
“A suspenseful and disturbing sci-fi thriller about the interweaving nature of trauma, memory, and identity.”—Peter Clines, New York Times bestselling author
In this claustrophobic science fiction thriller, a woman begins to doubt her own sanity and reality itself when she undergoes a dangerous experiment.
The Ganymede facility is a fresh start. At least that's what Senna tells herself when she arrives to take part in a cutting-edge scientific treatment in which participants have traumatic memories erased.
And Senna has reasons for wanting to escape her past.
But almost as soon as the treatment begins, Senna finds more than just her traumatic memories disappearing. She hardly recognizes her new life or herself. Even though the cure might justify the side effects of the process, Senna knows that something isn't right. As the side effects worsen, she will need to band together with the other participants to unravel the mystery of her present and save her future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The sole survivor of a suicide cult leaps at an opportunity to have her traumatic memories erased in this tense sci-fi thriller from Roux (Salvaged). Senna Slate is eager to move on from her time in the Dohring-Waugh cult, but overwhelmed by the bustle aboard the Tokyo Bliss space station. When tech pioneer Paxton Dunn offers her a chance to participate in a trial program that promises to erase bad memories, Senna travels to Paxton's facility on Ganymede to participate. She's joined by demanding supermodel Zurri and teenage hacker Han, both of whom have their own traumatic memories they wish erased. Senna, Zurri, and Han's distinct personalities captivate as they settle in on Ganymede, offsetting the more two-dimensional Paxton. As they proceed with the program, uncomfortable side effects plague Senna and the others, including disorientation, brutal headaches, and frightening visions. Entertaining as it is to see these characters grapple with their sense of self as they realize there's something wrong on Ganymede, the focus is more on Paxton's strange technology and the way he abuses it than on the experiment's human consequences, culminating in a reveal which, though thought-provoking, is not entirely convincing. Still, sci-fi fans will be taken with Roux's premise and well-crafted intrigue.
Customer Reviews
thought-provoking and twisted
RECLAIMED by Madeleine Roux is a futuristic, sci-fi, dystopian story line focusing on three humans who have suffered extraordinary personal tragedies, and have been offered a once in a lifetime chance to erase the specific memories from their pasts.
Told from several third person perspectives including Senna, Zurri and Han, RECLAIMED is set in the middle of the twenty-third century, when space travel, AI servitors, VIT, and VR are the norm. Wealthy entrepreneur and self-proclaimed genius Paxton Dunn has set up an experimental lab, at the Ganymede compound, on one of the moons of Jupiter, and has contacted our three leading characters for his inaugural test subjects and specific memory erasure. All three subjects have suffered through horrific experiences, and Paxton has targeted each for who they are, and what they know but the ‘treatment’ sessions begin to reveal that something is not quite right with Paxton and his crew, and the subjects begin to lose a little more of themselves with each progressive session.
Senna is a young woman who has spent most of her life controlled by a charismatic leader, a leader who dominated and restricted every aspect of her life but like many of his type, the need for power and control outweighed the safety of his followers, and in the end Senna is the only one to survive. Loneliness and innocence ooze through her broken façade.
Zurri is a super model with an ego to match but a stalker demanded Zurri’s attention. A televised promotion for Zurri’s new line of cosmetics ensured the world watched as her stalker appealed his final challenge. No amount of facial cream will heal the pain or memories of what happened and why.
Han is a fourteen year old, computer IT wizard, but he too, lost everything to a man man whose need to control destroyed many lives. On the fast track to genius, Han may become Paxton’s protégé, but a protégé that is about to take down a man he once considered his hero.
Madeleine Roux pulls the reader into a story of what ifs and hows? What if someone or something could erase the bad memories leaving only the good ones intact? …but therein lies the problem when memories are erased, what is left behind is a gaping ‘black hole’ of nothing, and in its’ place is darkness and pain. As our three ‘test subjects’ begin to breakdown both physically and emotionally, each will come to realize that their lives are no longer under their control.
RECLAIMED is a thought-provoking and aptly cautionary tale of desperation and loneliness, power and obsession, arrogance and egomania, suffering and pain. The premise is twisted and haunting, complex yet equally easy to read.